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Urban Sailors 'Step Into a Different Universe'

May 2, 2016 by jarndt
Urban Sailors 'Step Into a Different Universe'
Sailors are amongst the select few who can live in densely populated urban environments, with a simple step, escape to a 'different universe.'  That universe is sailing.  If you live in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Boston, Chicago or San Francisco, and happen to be lucky enough to sail, it's almost hard to imagine the different way you experience living in your city compared to millions of your land-bound neighbors.  
 
One of the great transformations going on in modern cities is a re-awakening to the value of outdoor recreation and the need for parks and green space.  And, for some, blue space.  While all cities are trying to expand green space there are some that recognize one of the best opportunities is the waterfront.  Naturally finding space for parks in congested cities is difficult but, with a small scrap of waterfront providing accesss to water, you suddenly have thousands of additional acres - the neighoring Bays and waterways - to play outdoors and escape urban overload.
 
It was refreshing to read in Sunday's New York Times (5/1/16) about one more inspired entrepreneur expanding facilities and access in one of America's most densely populated cities; New York!  In the following article Tim O'Brien, general manager of the new marina ONE15 in Brooklin, is quoted as saying, “You go on a boat, and immediately step into a different universe,” he said. “You still have that same feeling of being transported.”  We couldn't agree more.
 
Learn how ONE15 is bringing a sailing escape to space-starved New Yorkers: 
 
A New Marina Aims to Remind New Yorkers of Their Waterways
by By SARAH MASLIN NIR MAY 1, 2016
 
New York City is crisscrossed with rivers and bounded by the sea, facts easily forgotten when fighting the swift human currents of the city streets. But the owners of a marina that opened on Sunday off the banks of Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn Bridge Park are aiming to remind New Yorkers of the water that plies this place, and how to enjoy it.
 
“You’re on an island, and nobody thinks about the water except as something you need to get across, or over, or avoid somehow,” said Estelle Lau, the deputy chief executive officer of the marina at Pier 5, where Joralemon Street dead ends at the East River.
 
The marina, called ONE°15 Brooklyn — a reference to the coordinates of a marina over 9,500 miles away, in Singapore, where the majority partner of the $27 million project is based — will be a private dock with 100 slips for skiffs, yachts and the occasional hulking lightship. It will also devote a portion of its proceeds to community groups that will use the marina for education programs.
 
While there are marinas elsewhere in the city, including in Brooklyn and Queens and along the West Side of Manhattan, the marina’s owners felt this one would be a new asset.
 
 
 
Sail off the 'Big Apple' in Melges 24s and J/80s from ONE15 Marina.
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